Customer story:

Colas Improves Technical Proposals in Substance and Form using XaitProposal

Colas, a subsidiary of the Bouygues Group, is a global leader in the construction and maintenance of transport infrastructure. They have streamlined their process and improved the quality of their technical proposals.

Today, instead of wasting time on superficial details, such as formatting and page breaks, they are investing more time on content substance for a competitive advantage.

Business outcomes:

  • Eliminated design challenges
  • Reliable, up-to-date content
  • Improved content substance
  • Consistent brand charter
Colas logo

Region
France

Company size
57000

Industry
Construction

Solution
XaitProposal

Copying, Pasting and Risks of Mistakes

Colas, present in 50 counties spread across every continent, manages roughly 100,000 worksites every year. When it came to their technical proposals, they faced several time-consuming challenges that echo throughout the construction industry. Decentralized proposal management and outdated tools were slowing them down.

“In the past, it was just a reflex to copy and paste.” - Jean-Luc Gillot, Head of Department

  • Independent Management: Colas managed proposals independently in every branch.
  • Outdated Tools: Most proposal writers used Word, sometimes InDesign. It meant a lot of copying and pasting, with all the associated risks of mistakes, typos and errors.
  • Lack of Brand Consistency: Design-wise, there were as many layouts as there were branches – no coherence visually and a graphic charter that really suffered.
  • Time-consuming Tasks: Overall, they spent a lot of time struggling with formatting and design, and the results weren’t great.
  • Shifting Industry: The growing focus on technical notes in rating criteria led Colas to start using a proposal writing tool. This led their sales management to seek out proposal management software.

About Colas

Colas, a subsidiary of the Bouygues Group, has one mission: to imagine, build and maintain sustainable transport infrastructure. Backed by a network of 1,000 construction business units and 3,000 material production units in more than 50 countries on five continents, the Group’s 65,000 employees act locally to connect communities and foster exchanges for today and tomorrow. Colas’ ambition is to be the world leader in innovative, sustainable mobility solutions. In 2023, consolidated revenue at Colas totaled €16 billion (60% outside of France).

“Our technical proposals have absolutely improved in substance and in form. A good-looking technical proposal leads to success.”

– Jean-Luc Gillot, Head of Department at Colas

Jean-Luc-Gillot-Colas-830x830

Concrete Business Outcomes

Today, any Colas branch can respond fully to calls for tender. Proposal writers create the technical proposals as well as the specific technical documents such as official waste management, environmental management and quality plans.

  • Greater Efficiency. Spending less time on layout and formatting.
  • Greater Productivity. Up-to-date content and more time spent on substance.
  • Greater Perception. Harmonious branding across agencies.

A Modern Solution

XaitProposal was one of two software solutions Colas shortlisted. A head-to-head comparison of the two solutions led Colas to select XaitProposal.

“Its information security and the knowledge base that all users in a company share really made it stand out.” - Jean-Luc Gillot, Head of Department

  • Questionnaire: “The reflex now is to complete the questionnaire and know the content in the proposal models.”
  • Knowledge Base: Writers don’t have to go hunting around for reliable content – it’s all there and already available for all departments.
  • Automatic Layout: “In the past, they had to spend so much time on the table of contents, page breaks… all the page layout.”
  • Merge Fields: “The merge fields are really easy and reliable,”
  • Intuitive Editor: Easily add and customize content without worrying about the summary. Easily adapt a summary to a specific need: it’s a simple drag and drop.
  • User Friendly: XaitProposal’s user interface is very easy to understand and navigate. It takes only a short period of time for users to be able to produce documents after receiving basic training.
  • Innovation: “It’s reassuring to the teams to see how the software functionalities evolve and change.”
  • Beyond Proposals: “Applications are also created using XaitProposal, and it is a real advantage to be able to access all the right administrative and legal documents even when a particular colleague is absent.”

Jennifer Flahaut sums up what the users’ favorite XaitProposal functionalities are:

XaitProposal screen mockup with logo

“The merge fields are really easy and reliable, the knowledge base provides solid, approved content, the document outline lets us easily adapt our proposals to the customer, and the questionnaire means we include every piece of relevant information and are constantly improving.” - Jennifer Flahaut, Engineering Department”

– Jennifer Flahaut, Engineering Department at Colas

The Competitive Edge

Today, XaitProposal is used by more than 500 Colas workers, and about 60% of bids are created with XaitProposal. Their goal is to reach 100%.

  • Guided Process: The tool leads the user to the completed document without having to create new content.
  • Knowledge Access: “It is a real advantage to be able to access all the right administrative and legal documents even when a particular colleague is absent.”
  • Cross-Agency Collaboration: When one office has to put in a bid for a specific market, they can easily get a technical proposal to use as a starting point and take advantage of up-to-date content.
  • Elevated Image: “Our proposals are more uniform, and the layout is similar from branch to branch. That’s a real plus for the company image.”
  • Customer-Content Focused: “Now proposal writers can focus on the substance rather than the superficial details. In the past, they had to spend so much time on the table of contents, page breaks… all the page layout.”
  • Scalability: “We are working on an Individual Health and Safety Protection Plan for all of our site managers. And we’d like to bring other departments along with us on this journey – the technical department, major projects, etc.”

With XaitProposal, Colas has streamlined their technical proposal process, eliminating time-consuming tasks including layout, formatting, and tables of contents. This efficiency has reclaimed valuable time, resulting in more consistent, on-brand, substantive content. That’s a good thing considering their passion for innovation and their rapid growth in 2024.

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